To equable, steady-minded Will this state of matters was intolerable; and he determined, at whatever cost, to bring it to an end.
So, one warm summer afternoon he put on his best clothes, took a thorn switch in his hand, and set out down the valley by the river.

As soon as he had taken his determination, he had regained at a bound his customary peace of heart, and he enjoyed the bright weather and the variety of the scene without any admixture of alarm or unpleasant eagerness.

It was nearly the same to him how the matter turned out.

If she accepted him he would have to marry her this time, which perhaps was, all for the best.
If she refused him, he would have done his utmost, and might follow his own way in the future with an untroubled conscience.

He hoped, on the whole, she would refuse him; and then, again, as he saw the brown roof which sheltered her, peeping through some willows at an angle of the stream, he was half inclined to reverse the wish, and more than half ashamed of himself for this infirmity of purpose.
Marjory seemed glad to see him, and gave him her hand without affectation or delay.
'I have been thinking about this marriage,' he began.
'So have I,' she answered.